One of the miners, who were buried under piles of earth in a gallery in the Oranovo mine near the southwest Bulgarian town Simitli on Wedneday at noon, has died, Darik News reported.

The killed miner is Vassil Blagoev. He was taken out of the mine around an hour ago and preliminary information said that his condition is stable and he was transported to the hospital in the town of Blagoevgrad.

Blagoev's condition worsened just minutes after he was taken out from beneath the heap of earth and paramedics could not do a thing to save him.

The other miner, Vladimir Velikov is still buried 300 metres underground and the chances for his rescue are diminishing with every minute, the leader of the rescue party said.

This is the second time when miners in the Oranovo mine are injured. The previous incident in the mine resulted in two dead and another seven severely wounded miners.

The Oranovo mine is one of the big lignite coals pits in Bulgaria, situated in the southwest part of the country near the town of Simitli.

Three geological formations were found to be present in the pit - from the Proterozoic eon, from the Tertiary and from the Quaternary. The coals that are extracted from the mine are highly vaporisable, which is due to the pit humidity - around 30%. They are also highly flammable.

The Oranovo mine was privatised in 2004 and was sold for BGN 950,000. The buyer is Balkan MK Company, whose owner is the 25-year-old Stanislav Tassev.

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